The recent and relentless unfortunate comments of a certain Junaid Muhammed, the purported convener of the Coalition of Northern Politicians, Academics, Professionals and Businessmen, have assumed a war dimension against Ndigbo and need to be addressed decisively now as always. One would have willingly chosen to fall into the destructive temptation of ignoring the man but for the fact that he leads a foremost group of supposedly highly respected class of people from the northern part of Nigeria, which makes his opinions representative of the group he leads, it is necessary that he be addressed and kept in his proper place while being exposed for who he is in order to halt his injurious obsession with Ndigbo, a people whose incomparable success in all noble endeavours of life gets him so riled.

His latest vituperation against Ndigbo appeared as the main headline in the Sunday Sun newspaper of December 13, 2015. In the interview he granted the newspaper, Junaid made a lot of spurious claims and condescended so low to the extent that he betrayed his bitterness against Ndigbo not for anything but just for their success in life’s endeavours which he inadvertently admitted when he declared that “They are very enterprising, no doubt, and that is why they are exceptional traders”.

Apart from being exceptional traders, the best of Junaid’s Coalition of Northern Politicians, Academics, Professionals and Businessmen cannot stand or match the worst of its equivalent from the South Eastern part of Nigeria. All over the world, Ndigbo are known for their business acumen, academic excellence, professional dexterity, and political sagacity. This is why Ndigbo are found even in the British parliament. This is why Ndigbo keep breaking academic records even in the best universities all over the world. This is why Ndigbo are leaders in highly reputable and rated international professional bodies, financial institutions including the World Bank et al. One cannot even remember any member of Junaid’s Coalition and any Hausa/Fulani attaining such enviable heights. Such heights are not attained through rustic cattle herding or by a people whose largest and most attractive occupation is street begging. Neither can it be attained by a people whose second largest and second most attractive occupation is gate keeping. Their most successful modern trade is the maintenance of “sophisticated Superstores” usually run in 4ft x 4ft kiosks always tucked away in other people’s compounds. Apart from these, Junaid and his kinsmen lack the mental capacity to build anything or successfully run any entity. The current president’s lack of vision and direction for our economy and nation is an eloquent testimony to this fact.

It is very important to state this fact because Junaid alluded to the fact that Kano State alone is bigger than the five South Eastern states in Nigeria, hence, the states and the region have benefitted from the federation more than Kano State alone not to talk of the entire north. Let it be stated here, speedily and clearly, that such an assertion by a Russian-trained medical doctor like Junaid only goes to show how shallow he and those who have the responsibility to develop the north are. Behold, what is the essence of size if it is just there like a land being reserved for a century in order to make its collateral value rise? Of what essence has the size of the north been

to its own people in particular and Nigeria in general when the region boasts of a whopping 10 million illiterates roaming the same streets of Kano and other northern states with plates in hand begging for food from their hard-working neighbours from the South East resident in the north? Or has Junaid not heard about that cliché “big for nothing”?

The only reason the north is so large is to breed children they would not train and then unleash them on the rest of us as terrorists. Fortunately, the terrorists seem to have realized that Nigeria is not their problem but that their problems are people like Junaid who breed them for sinister purposes against Ndigbo and their interests by deliberately denying them their right to education while the Junaid’s feather their own nests by playing kangaroo activists on the pages of newspapers, hence, the terrorists have turned the heat on their sponsors and patrons lately. These innocent children seem to be asking why those among them who are lucky to attend school would be in the same class with an Emeka and a Segun, taught by the same teacher using the same syllabus, yet, when it is exam period, Aminu would have the insolent privilege of gaining admission into a fedral government college with just 2 marks over 200 while Emeka and Segun would have to score a minimum of 130 to gain admission into the same school having written the same exam as Aminu? Aminu himself feels insulted by that arrangement but the Junaid’s of this world see that as a conquest phenomenon! What a shame!

Junaid even had the temerity to castigate these innocent children for being illiterates. Hear him “Most of the Boko Haram terrorists are illiterate in terms of education; illiterate in terms of Islamic education”. Whose fault, Junaid? After all, it was the same northerners who held sway as leaders in this country for about 40 years of our 55 years existence as an independent nation, what did they do with the enormous resources at their disposal then? It seemed Junaid and his co-travellers are cursed. The more they hold on to power, the more impoverished the north becomes. What an irony!

And Junaid is pointing fingers at Ndigbo as a people who cannot be trusted with position because according to him, they have always abused it, as if Abacha who looted Nigeria to a point of paralysis is from Anambra State, or, the Gowon’s, Murtala’s, Shagari’s, Babangida’s, Buhari’s, Abdulsalami’s etc who looked away while their people were ferociously ravished by abject poverty, extreme illiteracy and disease were from Abia, Ebonyi, Enugu or Imo State?

He even accused Anyim Pius Anyim, immediate past Secretary to Government of the Federation and Lt Gen Azubuike Ihejirika of nepotism in appointments and promotions of personnel under them. Whatever he accused these gentlemen of is borne out of frustration. Assuming it is even true, is Buhari not doing a worse thing now? If we are to say we want to clean up our civil and public service today, does Junaid not know that the result would be absolutely fatal for his kinsmen? A lot of them who came in without the basic certificates but through recommendation letters from powerful emirs and godfathers would be fished out! And if such an exercise is carried out under the supervision of a southerner, the Junaid’s of this world will cry foul! Let him be reminded that we have still not forgotten how Buhari got into the military. Six months after he had the opportunity to show us his certificate, he pretends he does not know it has been an issue.

It is widely believed that Buhari got into the military through the Hausa/Fulani way, via a “recommendation letter”.

Let the Junaid’s of our nation hide their heads in shame. For fear of being caught, he accuses pro-Biafra agitators of terrorism – a people who demonstrate peacefully in the open, without arms or harm to anyone, whose demands are not only rational but genuine, germane and long overdue, cannot be terrorists. Such agitators deserve to be meaningfully engaged rather than ignored or killed. It is moribund elders like Junaid who willingly, deliberately, consciously and relentlessly spew hate and violence against fellow citizens even when others are speaking peace, that are terrorists, a different kind of terrorists, elite terrorists, and they should be treated as such!

Jude Ndukwe is a political analyst who lives and works in Abuja, Nigeria. He tweets from@stjudendukwe.

The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author.